Paz

I think the Internet has a lot to answer for on this point, in any hobby these days it's easy to get drawn into constantly wanting more gear. There's nothing wrong with that per se and I've had the same experience sometimes where you end up obsessed with a thing or agonising over a decision. Now in all my hobbies except for astronomy I avoid the gear acquisition thing like the plague, it's just too late for me to avoid it in this hobby.

The more experienced I've got the fewer targets I go for in sessions and the fewer eyepieces I use in sessions, and the more time I spend just looking and thinking about what Im looking at. I'll quite often stick to one eyepiece in a session, often it will be only 2, and very rarely more than 3. Some views may be less than ideal, for example last night I was looking at a few dsos at medium magnification, but then stopped on Castor for a bit. I didn't bother changing eyepieces for a better view at higher magnification. I've got Baader Mk4 zoom but I'll only use that as a space saver if travelling, I prefer fixed eyepieces if possible.

I have a quark and I get this effect. I'm actually quite happy observing with the quark before it has warmed up. When its cold it's like white light observing with a red filter and as it warms up the Ha features emerge and get more refined.

I use the max Bright 2 with a 14" dobsonian and looking at my notes I can't see that I got anything else to work other than the newtonian 1.7x gpc but I didn't try everything. I wonder about options like a 2" to t2 converter then a t2 train with a traditional 1.7x or 2.6x gpc or a shortened power mate into the binoviewer but it would be time consuming and expensive to try other permutations of baader gear and none would be optimised like the newtonian gpc. It is a shame they are discontinuing the newtoniam gpc, it is quite specialist but so is the binoviewer and all its other accessories. One option is if you can move the primary mirror up the tube and have it located so you can focus, but that would be another major undertaking and make focusing without the binoviewer a new challenge, and you would have to look out for the secondary mirror still catching the whole light cone if you raise the mirror. There are other binoviewers designed to work with newtonians, e.g. the Binotron 27, it is expensive and I think heavier but would do the job very well.

I have quite a few eyepieces but I do genuinely use lots of different eyepieces over time as I have a variety of scopes and observe all sorts of targets. However I also think Internet forums, Facebook, etc do encourage hobbyists to end up with far more gear than they really need if they're not careful and being honest this is the case with me and astronomy. I realised this when I took up some other hobbies and saw how much gear people have these days in any hobby. In all my hobbies except for astronomy I am disciplined about gear, e.g. I play guitar and I have one guitar, one amp, and one pedal board and that's it so I spend my time playing not thinking about what gear I'm going to play. I find the forums about guitar playing to be preoccupied with gear rather than music and I don't participate in them. One last interesting point is that despite an unhealthy collection of eyepieces, on any given session I know what I'll be looking at and I will pick never normally more than 3 eyepieces to take out, and often I'll only use 1 or 2 in a session.

I am sorry to hear this news, John was an active and helpful member of this forum and will be missed.

Yes I use stars in the field to focus as they are brighter and higher contrast than extended objects but the brighter they are the better. I star hop manually and if a nebulous target is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dim stars made dimmer by a filter I will struggle focusing, and moving away to something brighter in order to focus can be a lot of hassle. I use parfocal baader filters when I'm using a filter changer and it works well for me. I admit I don't know if other manufacturers make their filters parfocal.

I'm late to this bit I would recommend two... a Hb filter and a clear focusing filter that is parfocal with all the others. I find with uhc filters etc it is hard to get a good focus as everything is dimmer. I like to focus on something bright enough to make it easy. Getting the focus pinned with using a parfocal clear filter and then switching to a dim view that is already in focus is great.

The ultimate magnification you can go to is still limited the same way by the seeing, but if you have significant floaters that ate a limiting factor in cyclops mode you may find you can go to higher magnifications and smaller exit pupils better with binoviewers. The magnification factor of a Barlow or glass path corrector depends on how far in front of the eyepiece it is. In cyclops mode a Barlow goes immediately in front of the eyepiece so they are close and the magnification is usually what it says on the tin. If you put a binoviewer in between a Barlow and 2 eyepieces the distance is greater between them and so the magnification factor is higher. For example if I put a 2.6x glass path corrector right in the nose of my binoviewer (where it is expected to go) it does 2.6x but if I add spacers to the it or say if I put it in front of the diagonal so it's even further ahead it will be making 3.4x or even more.

I've used both glasses and Dioptrx for years. I would say a couple of things... (1) the very best views I've seen included a Dioptrx in the optical train, it is very good quality (2) Most of the time I use glasses not the Dioptryx, due to the convenience factor, but I wouldn't part with the Dioptrx.

There's quite a few likenesses I had not thought of there! We ought to start a thread for ridiculous objects spotted on the moon, of the same philosophy as the dreadful wordplay jokes thread in the lounge, the more tenous the better!

It is interesting what shapes our minds see, I saw a rabbit face once ...

I have a pair of Sorel snow boots that are so well insulated my feet and lower legs end up cooking in their own heat. I also have a pair of mitts (I cant recall the make) that follow the same principle, I have to take them off from time to time to let my hands cool down which I have to do anyway to change eyepieces etc. However both the boots and mitts are so bulky they are useless for anything else.

It would be useful to have an image or failing that if you can find an image of a star test online that looks as close as possible to what you can see and refer to that. Descriptions in words are difficult to interpret without leaving quite a lot of scope for misinterpretation.

I use a 72mm f6 apo with an AZT6 for travel, and I mostly observe at home with a 102mm f7 apo with a skytee 2 mount. The 102mm apo is great and I would recommend it over the 102mm star travel. The star travel is a fine scope for what it is and I've observed for years with the 120mm version and have had lots of great times but since I've owned both it is almost always the 102mm apo that gets picked for action. I don't use the 102mm with the AZT6 as the vibes are too much for my liking, but then I put the AZT6 on a very light tripod, it might fare better on a heavy and solid tripod.

I could only gplo out for half an hour with a 72mm refractor, Mars was veiled by thin cloud unfortunately but Jupiter was on and the seeing looked good, a shame I didnt have time to go out for longer with a bigger scope.

Good call, I'll give this a go if its clear.

I use 1.25" eyepieces most of the time but having 2" options is still good to have. I'll use 2" quite often with the VX14 but much less often with my smaller scopes.

I have this scope by another brand name and I also hate the twistlocks. I didnt realise the whole 2" twistlock will come off and can be replaced!

Great report, it is always fun showing young people the sights. I've had experiences with my boys where I'll carefully explain what to look for if its not easy to see but with their better eyesight they can see more than I can!

I would skip the astronomy and do the party, no one would understand or sympathise with thr idea of missing the birthday parrty!

When I got a long term travel scope I went for a 72mm so it was small and good for travel but also so it didn't compete with my 102mm for grab and go, and this has worked out well.

I have 7 or so scopes because I wanted to experience the different types for myself and because I have to date not had time to sell things on that I no longer need and I have therefore accumulated quite a lot. But I intend to downsize and just keep 3 scopes... A 72mm refractor for travel, a 102mm refractor for grab and go and the 14" reflector for epic sessions.

Congratulations on making it out of the gear acquisition merry go round. I think I am there too, except for a few very specific bits and pieces I keep my eye out for second hand.

Scatter is a big issue for solar and eyepieces that are low scatter by nature therefore do well. Less surfaces and less thickness of glass medium to pass through means less scatter. Smaller apparent field of view eyepieces are cheaper as they need less surfaces and less glass and for the same reason therefore are good for solar. Its a rare example of where cheaper kit can also be better.